All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing
Edmund Burke

All that is necessary for the triumph of stupidity, is for stupid men to blather on, and intelligent men say nothing. John Strohl

Wednesday, July 24, 2013

It's About The Carbon In The Atmosphere! Let's Get Our Priorities Straight!

When
we put everything in the balance, the bottom line on climate change,
global warming, sea level rise, ice sheet melting, literally everything,
is carbon in the atmosphere. There is literally no value to arguing
about what caused it, or who. We're still getting our arms around the
fine details of that, but the science is in and thousands of scientists
around the world agree that there is significant anthropogenic impact in
the global warming scenario.

The basic story goes like
this: We live in a closed loop environment with the singular exception
of energy being injected into our system 24/7 by our Sun. That closed
loop has X amount of Carbon in it. For purposes of our discussion, this
doesn't change (Conservation of Mass -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservation_of_mass). What does change is
where the carbon is at any given time. When it's "out of the way"
meaning someplace where it isn't a problem we say it's "sequestered".
Sequestration can take the form of plant life, animal life, hydrocarbons
(coal, oil, gas), and non-organic carbon compounds in the earth,
carbon dissolved in water, and so on. Usually it refers to anyplace
other than in the air. When it is in the air, primarily in the form of
gaseous compounds such as carbon dioxide, methane, carbon monoxide,
propane, or any other gaseous hydrocarbon, it acts to reflect and absorb
heat radiated back out toward space by the earth's surface, to varying
degrees, depending upon the specific compound (Green House Gas effect).
Methane for instance is about 25 times as potent at this function as
carbon dioxide. This whole process that defines where the carbon is at
any given moment is called the carbon cycle. We have seriously disturbed
the "balance" of the carbon cycle, and the carbon cycle is what
regulates the "just right" conditions of the Earth's atmosphere,
supporting life on Earth.

An excellent illustration of
the anthropogenic (human originated) activities that impact the carbon
cycle and are at the heart of global warming and climate change is
presented in this diagram from the World Resource Institute
(http://www.wri.org/chart/world-greenhouse-gas-emissions-flow-chart)

The
essence of the situation is that we are approaching a super saturated
carbon condition in the atmosphere, with serious environmental tipping
points. This will maximize the trapping of converted solar energy, that
would otherwise escape into space. Passing the tipping points will mean
we have gone so far in a particular direction that we can't go back in a
functional time scale (many human life times) - if at all! The science
is in, the situation is real. There is no point in arguing it because we
have very little time to do something about it, and arguing will just
waste more precious time. The question NOW is, what can we do about it?